Sturgis advertiser. (Sturgis, Dakota [S.D.]) 1887-1???, 1887-09-28
BEHIND THE EASTERN VEIL.
Persian Womsn--w rat They DO and
How They Do II.

Il , Fl
I Eastern women are pitied and UNI
happy beings, on the theory that they
are imprisoned in a golden cage close
IL guarded by very ugly cunuchs, and
reduced to spend their time in attempt
ing to catch the smiles OF jealous
lord, as they apraH1 in graceful atti-
tudes on silken cushions. Their only
other occupation is understood to be
devouring immense quantities of sweet
meats, In order to become corpulent;
their only amusement the pleasure of
poisoning rival wives and hearing in
terminable stories of the arabian
Nights" pattern.
II is true that with the Turk beauty
must be fat. It is not SO, however,
with the Persian; be has the apprecia-
ton Of connoisseur for the juste mil
len. A stout woman in Persia is spok-
en- Of as can elephant, !" while the lean
er ones are generally called 'camels. !"
Though they deal largely in hyperbole,
Irshe Persians do not mince matters in
speaking Of the fair sex.
The veil, which is habitually worn
] out of doors even by the very poor in
all great towns in Persia, though its
use is unknown among the tribes who
form at least third of the whole pop
ulation, is chung to by the women as a
privilege; it is in fact domino. The
Persian woman out of doors is unrecog-
nizable even by her husband, She
sees without being seen, and in the veil
it is impossible to detect the age of the
wearer, and the Persian lady is nearly
always married at ID; she begins to
fade at ~ at least, at 80 she appears
SO, and there are only two dentists in
the whole of Persia.
Polygamy is the luxury OF the rich;
j with the upper and middle classes
4 bigamy is the rule. A mans first ALI
ance is a marriage for convenience, the
second either marriage for love or
the qualification of wants. When your
Persian brings home a second wife
there is usually a scene which lasts for
81 week or tive; there is struggle for
& supremacy, but it is soon over. Both
wives do their best to please the mas
ter of the house, but they do not at
tempt to poison each other, unless in
very exceptional circumstances. But
Persian ladies still believe in the
efficacy of love philters, and many an
abonination is secretly administered to
unfortunate husbands. Happily, the
love philter, though usually composed
of horrible ingredients, is quite HARM
less.
The bath takes up good deal of the
time of the Persian women. Even the
poorest will attend the Hannah at
least once week. For the lady the
bath is one of the serious affairs of life,
and takes up daily from two to four
hours of her time. 1t is something
more than our idea of bath. The
victim is scraped and rubbed and par
boiled The soles Of the feet are pum-
iced until they are soft and tender as
those Of a little child. The hair is
thoroughly washed by means of hot
water and the saponaceous clay for
which Shiraz is celebrated. Then the
attendants mix in brazen bowl the
aromatic heuna with the requisite
amount of lemon juice, till brown
paste of the consistency of cruel ispro-
duced, and several handIufs OF
the repulsive looking compound are
smeared over the lady's head. Then
the hair, collected into a mass, is bound
Nup in cabbage leaves. Small quanti-
ties of the dye are smeared over the
eyebrows; the solcs of the feet, the
toes, the palms of the hands, and the
finger tips are also covered with it
And now the lady has to sit perfectly
still for from one to three hours, till,
like meerschaum pipe, she colors
and it is exactly the color obtained on
The best specimens of pipes that is most
fashionable among the PERSIAN ladies.
Day after day the bath is thronged
with women, each sitting perfectly
for the color to stake" But they have
their reward, for the henna dyes the
hair a beautiful deep warm chestnut
hence gray hair is unknown among
Persian ladies. While the colorine
process has been going on tongues
have been running, and good dea
OF scandal has been exchanged. The
female barber, with q pair of tweezers
has removed every outlying hair from
the region of the lady's eyb rows. 1t il
the ambition of every Persian woman
that her eyebrows shall meet, Of
it Last appear to do SO. 81
attractive a'e eyebrows that NEE
that they are called the "bridgt
of love- The first care, then, o
tho Persian beauty is with little pen
Gil of anthony to unite her eyebrows
and then she proceeds to make then
appear of unnatural thickness; her eye
lashes are penciled, too, in name
not unknown to our own country-wom
en-. By this time the lady will hay
smoked many kalians or water pipes
she will have partaken of tea, and re
called herself with coffee; iced sherbets
too, will not have been wanting He
finger tips, pals and palms. as well a
the soles of her feet and her toes, hav
attained a BRIGHT chestnut hue Whic